Woman Unknowingly Brings Home Unwanted Souvenirs from Croatia: Creepy Crawly Scorpions

After going back home from a vacation in Croatia, a terrified traveler experienced the shock of her life when she discovered 18 creepy crawly scorpions in her luggage.

On Saturday, July 23, the woman had just returned from her vacation in the Adriatic and was unpacking at her house in Natternbach, a small village in the district of Grieskirchen, which is located in the state of Upper Austria.

She found an entire family of the stingers when she popped her case open, which gave her the chills.

Amazingly, the woman allegedly discovered a nest of 18 scorpions just lounging about in her suitcase, including a mother and her young.

She later made a call to Gusental's animal rescue services. In a statement released on Sunday, July 25, Tierhilfe Gusental stated that on that afternoon, a woman from Natternbach contacted their team to report that stowaways had built nests in the luggage they used on their Croatia excursion.

The animal shelter went into specifics saying that the stowaways are a mother scorpion with 17 of its young. The rescue team received the animals after they had been secured. Until they set out on their journey back to Croatia, they are being held in the Linz animal shelter.

Vacationing Scorpions

From reports made on Austrian media, this is not the first time that scorpions vacationed in Croatia. This is the third instance.

Following a vacation in Croatia, a woman from Linz reportedly found a scorpion in her residence on Thursday, June 30.

She had been living there for three weeks already when she made the strange discovery.

This indicates that the unsettling scorpion probably spent three weeks making itself at home in the apartment without anyone noticing.

Another incident occurred in September of last year when a Croatian scorpion was discovered at a residence in Upper Austria before being taken to the nearest animal shelter.

Scorpions

Scorpions are distinguished by a segmented, curved tail at the back of the body that is tipped with a poisonous stinger, and a pair of appendages, or grasping pincers, at the front.

Despite inhabiting a variety of habitats, deserts are where they are most prevalent and diverse.

Scorpions in Croatia are mainly found along the Adriatic Sea coast and are much less common inland.

Croatia is home to a few distinct scorpion species. None of the species in Croatia are dangerous to humans.

Despite being venomous, their poison cannot kill a human. Despite this, their stings can hurt, swell, itch, turn red, and feel burning.

Although there are five different species of scorpion in Croatia, only the E. Germanus, and the Euscorpius italicus. Both of these species are thought to be harmless to people, Zenger News reports.

Scorpions in the US

Since they are mainly found in desert areas, scorpions are a common household pest, particularly in the southern United States. They typically spend the day hiding out in shadowy areas and emerge at night in search of water and food. There are about 2000 different species of scorpions in the world, and there are about 90 different species of these poisonous predators in the United States.